Awkward in Austin
by Boringlittlehumanbrains
Summary: Martin loved getting to the airfield early in the morning. Well, not really, but he did enjoy being alone in the Portacabin, safe from any over-enthusiastic Arthurs and snide Douglases. It wasn't his fault that everyone seemed to underestimate him, was it?
1. Chapter 1

Martin loved getting to the airfield early in the morning. Well, not really, but he did enjoy being alone in the Portacabin, safe from any over-enthusiastic Arthurs and snide Douglases. It wasn't his fault that everyone seemed to underestimate him, was it? Maybe it was, but it wasn't for lack of trying. It just seemed that whenever he endeavored to be anything other than an awkward gangly ginger mess of a man, something went terribly wrong. There was a disconnection between his brain and his mouth that was augmented if any female was within fifty feet. These quiet moments were his refuge from the general rubbishness of everyday life. He plopped down in the creaky chair that listed drunkenly behind his desk and settled in to start the paperwork for the day. According to the flight manifests, they were supposed to be shuttling some specialized kitchen equipment to a fancy restaurant in America somewhere, along with a person who could install and explain it. Someone called… Oh no. He thought as his heart sank into his highly polished shoes. Their only passenger was called Lea. A woman. He let his head fall to the desk and groaned at the irony of his life. The door opened and footsteps entered the small office.

"Don't start Douglas. Not today. I know our passenger is a woman and I know you just love to tease me about my horrendous history with women. Can we just leave it so I can maybe make it through one day without embarrassing myself?"

His only answer was silence, but he thought he heard a tiny giggle. A tiny _feminine_ giggle.

"Oh no. Not again." He buried his head deeper into the cradle of his arms and wished fervently to disappear.

"Sorry to walk in unannounced like this. I asked the people in the airport where the offices for MJN were and they pointed me out here. Am I in the right spot? I am Lea by the way- very American and still slightly confused about British pilot's uniforms. You are… the… captain. Right?"

Martin raised his head when she started talking about pilot's uniforms. He hoped beyond hope that she would guess he was the captain but he didn't expect her to get it right so he was surprised when she did. "No, actually I'm the… oh. Yes, I am the captain. Captain Crieff."

She quickly walked across the small room, stopping in front of his desk and drawing his eyes like a magnet. His jaw almost hit the top of his desk. Lea was quite short, even in the low heels she wore. Her light brown hair was cut to shoulder length and corkscrewed into a riot of curls. She had grey eyes and a small pert nose that only seemed to emphasize the generous mouth currently quirked in a conspiratorial smile. Laugh lines fanned out around her eyes even though she couldn't have been more than twenty-five. As he stared, her head cocked to the side and one eyebrow ascended slightly. "Do I have something on my face?" She swiped at her forehead, making her curls swing hypnotically.

"No, you don't have anything on your face. I was just looking at you. I mean, I was admiring your mouth… No, that came out wrong. Because I definitely love your face but not that way. I mean, I don't love your face, obviously, but I was staring. No! I wasn't staring at all. It's just, I would love to have you on the plane. Or, I would love you… to be on the plane with me… or with us. The crew, I mean… Oh god." He trailed off after that train wreck of words, feeling his face flush scarlet to his ears and stared at his hands, twisting nervously in his lap. Her low liquid giggle rang out again just as Douglas burst through the door, halfway through a sentence.

"Hope she isn't in here with Captain Dunderhead. He will probably manage to scare her away with some… Oh. Hello."

Lea turned to face him and Martin dropped his head back down onto his desk with a clunk, absolutely scarlet to the tips of his ears.

"And this must be the self-proclaimed Sky god. Hello, I am…"

"An angel?" Douglas interrupted smoothly.

She gave a snort of laughter. "Not even close. Anyway, as I was saying, my name is Lea. Lovely to meet you, but please do stay over there. The smarm you are currently oozing may ruin my jacket. And it's my favorite."

Douglas seemed taken aback at her immunity to his flattery, but Lea ignored him and rose to her tiptoes to wave at Arthur who was just coming in the door.

Arthur responded as Arthur was wont to. "Hi Lea! I didn't expect you to be here with the stuff! This is just brilliant! Will you be riding along? Please say you will be! You can play word games with Skip and Douglas and charades with me and I can make you tea and it will be absolutely brilliant!"

Lea shooed Douglas out of Arthur's way as he practically tackled her in a hug. "Hi Arthur! Sorry, but I am not flying with you guys today."

Arthur's face fell in disappointment as Carolyn bustled in behind him. "What do you mean you aren't flying today, Lea? Of course you are. Besides, we need you to help Arthur take care of our other passenger."

"Why?" asked Arthur, "Aren't you coming mum?"

"No, Arthur, I am not. I am going to the opera. With Herc."

"Hence the getup." Douglas smirked.

"Shame on you, horrible man. She looks lovely. Entirely appropriate for an evening at the opera. And I guess that I could be persuaded to fly. It's just the bumps and dips that make me nervous."

"Well, if the angel doesn't like bumps, then I had better fly the takeoff then. Isn't that right, Captain Kangaroo?"

Douglas' comment made Martin cringe, but then he experienced an unexpected flash of anger. "Excuse me, Mr. Sky god, but who was it that landed us on one engine after we had a goose strike? I can fly just as well as you can when you aren't mocking me or distracting me. And what do you mean other passenger, Caroline? I have already done the fuel calculations."

Carolyn's eyebrows shot up. "I don't suggest you talk to me like that, Martin. Or has someone else hired you to fly planes? Now shut up the pair of you. We had a last minute booking. Anyway, Douglas will operate out, and Martin back. Martin, you get the flight plan filed and then do the walk-around. Douglas, you work out the load sheet. Arthur, check the food. Actually, Lea, you should probably go along with him. We don't want to repeat the baby chicken incident, do we?"

Lea winked at Martin as she followed Arthur to the plane. "Definitely not."

Douglas sauntered by Martin's desk on his way out the back. "Well, she is quite pretty. And she seemed immune to my considerable charms. Shame. But that does provide you with a much hoped for chance. Don't muck it up."


	2. Chapter 2

The other passenger arrived just as Arthur and Lea were putting the finishing touches on a plate of inflight nibbles. Carolyn walked him out to the plane and got him seated as Lea came out with a tray of bruschetta and cheese.

"Can I get you anything to drink, sir?" she asked politely.

"I would like a gin and tonic." He responded.

"Yes, sir. Coming right up."

"And then you can come right back here and sit your pretty little American arse down with me."

Lea set the tray down and only avoided punching the man by gritting her teeth so much that they creaked. "MJN prides itself on maintaining professionalism in all things, sir, so I would appreciate it very much if you would observe the same. I will serve you your drink now and come back to check on you later."

He reached out and grabbed her arm. "But I am the customer, and the customer is always right. Sit down here next to me, gorgeous."

Douglas practically ran around the front of GERTIE, looking for Martin. He was sick and tired of hearing him whine about raft metaphors and his conspicuous lack of a girlfriend. And under all the sarcastic comments and languid putdowns, he really was a hopeless romantic.

"Martin! I really think you should go into the plane now." He called as soon as the shorter pilot came into view.

"I would really love to, Douglas, but my walkaround isn't even half finished yet."

Douglas interrupted him. "No, Martin. You need to go inside GERTIE. Right. Now."

Martin looked up from where he was inspecting the wheel brakes. He had never heard Douglas speak with such urgency before. Annoyance, yes. Aggravation, constantly. Sarcasm, definitely. But urgency? Never. So Martin rose from his crouch and said, "Uh… alright. I guess I could, if you finish the walk-around." He walked back along the side of the aircraft wondering why Douglas could possibly want him on the plane. He hoped that his first officer wasn't trying to smuggle anything on this flight. He desperately wanted to look professional in front of Lea. As he thought about her again, his cheeks and ears grew hot. The moment when she had stood so confidently in the doorway, one hand on a generous hip, chest heaving from her short jog out to the Portacabin kept playing in his head, making his heart race and his hands shake a little.

Approaching the door of the plane, he heard raised voices from inside. One of them was definitely Lea's and the other was an unfamiliar male voice.

"I must ask you to release my arm, sir."

"You will sit here and entertain me for the duration of our journey. I paid an astronomical sum to be on this flight and I will do whatever I feel like doing. Now, come here."

Martin hustled up the steps and burst into the cabin just in time to hear Lea's short, curtailed scream and see their passenger tug her down onto his lap to take her mouth roughly with his own. He rushed to Lea's defense without thinking. "How dare you?" he railed at the man, so loudly that even Martin himself was surprised. Lea used the distraction to disentangle herself from the squid-like grip of the man and retreat towards Martin. The passenger started up out of his seat, moving to follow her. She dodged his outstretched arms and bumped into Martin, who instinctively steadied her, curling an arm about her waist and pulling her close to his side.

"What gives you the right to tell me what to do?" fumed the passenger.

"Two things. First, I am the Captain, and therefore Supreme Commander of this vessel." He began to trail off, but he suddenly felt a warm hand cover his and squeeze gently. He glanced down at Lea and realized that she was trembling. He surged with righteous anger, protectiveness and confidence, all three of which made his brain short-circuit slightly and so what came out of his mouth was not at all what he had planned. "Furthermore, she is my girlfriend, so back the bloody hell off." He managed to look threatening enough to cow the passenger back into his seat. "Now, you will apologize to my girlfriend and you will refrain from touching, speaking to or even looking at her for the remainder of the flight. We will procure another steward to serve you."

"I apologize for my actions, miss. I meant no offense."

"You certainly did mean offense, but thank you for the apology." Martin replied for her. "Now, please take your seat. We will be taking off shortly."

Guiding her carefully towards the galley, he leant down and whispered, "Thank you for playing along. I wasn't actually going to say that, it just sort of came out. I mean, I wasn't trying to assume anything because we only met today and if I liked you, like that I mean, or if you liked me. Or not, I wasn't suggesting that you did or anything, I just…"

Lea touched his shoulder and hushed him softly. "It's alright, Captain, I appreciate your help."

"It was no trouble, no trouble at all. And you don't have to call me Captain. Just call me Martin, or Marty, whichever you prefer." He chuckled nervously as he immediately regretted saying Marty, but he heartened when she scrunched her nose up at the name.

"You strike me more as a Martin than a Marty. Thank you for being my white knight, Martin. I appreciate the rescue." She stretched up on her toes and kissed his cheek. Martin had been trying to think of something else to apologize about, but when he felt the soft brush of her lips, he gave up trying to form a coherent sentence and let his eyes flicker closed. He lost track of time as he basked in the warmth and comfort of her closeness until he heard Lea say his name.

"Martin?" He let out a little noise, the sound of her voice speaking the simple word making him unbelievably happy and sad at the same time. Happy because he could pretend for a little while at least that someone cared about him and her throaty voice gave him shivers, but sad because after today, he would never see her again, or hear her voice.

She leaned in, waving her hand in front of his face and peering at his blushing cheeks. But just as she lowered her hand, Martin turned his head to continue his awkwardly stilted conversation, and their lips connected in a flash of fire. They both froze. For a few beautiful seconds, Martin thought that she was kissing him back, not just standing there awkwardly, before his brain kicked back in and started to undermine his happiness.

He tore his mouth away and backed up. He attempted to put together an apology, until he made the mistake of looking at Lea's startled face. He blushed scarlet as his paranoia went into overdrive. She would run screaming, or yell at him, either way, he would never see her again. She probably thought him an odious, awkward little man.

"Um… Please excuse me, I have to go…" Martin paused for a moment before he figured out what he was going to say, "I have to go fly the plane." He practically ran out of the small space, escaping back to the flight deck.

As he slammed the door shut and leaned against it, Douglas looked up from the book he was reading. "Oh no, what did you do to her?"

"Why do you assume I did something to her?"

Douglas looked at him sarcastically. "Because you are you, and you have a horrific track record with women."

Martin sank down into the padded pilot's seat and heaved a sigh. "You're right. I screwed it up again… Why me?"

"Oh, don't start the existential crisis yet. Or the moping. I can't take it today."


	3. Chapter 3

Lea stared after Martin, wishing that he had stayed. She had just worked up the confidence to kiss back, melting into his warm frame, when he jumped back as if he had been scorched. She thought for a moment that he might have been gay, but surely not. He had definitely been staring at her and possibly drooling slightly when she had barged into the office. Suddenly, she had a sickening thought- what if he already had a girlfriend? Sure, he was awkward and stuttery, but surely someone as attractive as the captain would have had at least a few girlfriends. At that moment, Arthur came in.

"Hello, Lea! Oh, you don't look so good. Are you alright?"

"Yes, Arthur, I am fine. Um, I have a question for you."

Arthur brightened, "Brilliant! I love questions!"

"Well, it's a bit of a personal one, about the captain."

"You have a question about Skip? Brilliant!"

Just then, the intercom flicked on with a soft ding. "Good afternoon, this is Captain Martin Crieff. We are about to begin our flight this afternoon from Fitton to Austin, Texas. If the passengers and cabin crew could please take their seats and fasten their seat belts, then we will be ready to taxi out to the runway. Thank you and have a nice flight."

Arthur turned to Lea, "So what was it that you wanted to ask me about Skip?"

"I will ask you later, okay? Takeoff isn't my favorite part of flying."

Arthur instantly jumped on the opening. "Brilliant! What is your favorite part?"

Lea grinned weakly, "Being on the ground again."

He bulled straight on without really acknowledging her answer. "I love the whole trip, but my favorite parts are the takeoff and landing. They are brilliant. And Skip and Douglas are terrific pilots! You won't have to worry at all."

Lea smiled at Arthur's reassurance. "Thank you, Arthur. I definitely feel better."

The plane began to move, and they hustled to buckle themselves into the small seats prepared for the cabin crew. Lea clutched her hands in her lap, mind running through all the possibilities as they taxied out to the runway, paused for a few minutes and then began to pick up speed. Her grip turned white-knuckled as they rose into the air, accelerating higher into the cloudless blue sky that stretched in every direction.

Once they leveled out, Martin and Douglas finished the post-takeoff checklist and took a moment to breathe. Although, Martin wasn't afforded much respite as Douglas turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "So, how did your little intervention go?"

"You did that on purpose!" Martin squeaked indignantly.

"Of course I did. Well, to clarify, I didn't make him go after her, but I did boot you into the cabin to help her out. How did you do?"

Martin paused, "Well, I may have called her my girlfriend."

"Good for you!" exclaimed Douglas.

"Good? No! Not good! Anything but good! She will probably never speak to me again!"

"And you want her to." Douglas guessed. "You really really want her to."

"Um…" Martin flailed awkwardly in an attempt to downplay his attraction, thus preventing the inevitable ribbing from his first officer.

"Admit it! There is no shame in it. She is smart, pretty, according to Arthur, she cooks like a demon and isn't turned off by your awkward stuttering. Hang on a second." Douglas peered at him intently. Martin kept staring resolutely out the front windscreen. "Did you… No! You couldn't have. You absolutely couldn't have. Did you do anything else?" Douglas chuckled as Martin's ears flushed crimson. "You did!" He crowed triumphantly. "You did!" Gloating profusely, he started to postulate outrageous five minute interludes of Martin's encounter with the young lady, first just the two of them, and then the two of them utilizing various cabin equipment- the door locking bar for example, until Martin had turned a lovely shade of burgundy. He fidgeted until finally, he couldn't take the joking anymore and bolted for the bathroom.


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as the plane leveled out, Lea unbuckled her seatbelt and headed for the bathroom. She wasn't going to be sick, she hoped, but the small space made her feel more secure somehow, distracting her from the miles and miles of open air underneath the plane. She sank down onto the floor that she had helped Arthur clean that morning and closed her eyes, letting her head fall back against the wall. She had almost lost track of time when the door banged open and Martin came hurtling through it. Lea tried to pull in her feet, but he tripped anyway, sprawling headlong and whacking his nose against the porcelain sink. It immediately began to spout blood like a fountain, leaking on the floor and through his fingers when he clapped his hand up in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

Lea jumped up from her position on the floor, "Oh my goodness, I am so sorry. My stupid feet were in your way and you just… And you are bleeding! Oh no! Quick, hold your nose over the sink so you don't get any blood on your uniform." She hauled him up from the floor and pushed his head carefully over the sink, pulling a dark blue towel off the rack and handing it to him to press against his nose, which was already swelling up and turning a delightful shade of angry reddish purple.

Martin groaned in pain and embarrassment. He couldn't even walk properly around the girl. How was he supposed to have any chance at all with her? He held the towel to his nose and thanked what little luck he had that in addition to soaking up the blood; the towel was doing a very good job of covering his furiously blushing face. He wondered how he could still retain enough blood in his face to be blushing since it was flowing freely out of his nose. Lea rubbed his back slowly, still apologizing for her part in the catastrophe. Martin leaned his head back and looked over at her.

"It wasn't your fault." He reassured her in a nasally voice, "I should have checked…" He trailed off as he felt her shaking. "What are you…?"

She raised her head and burst out laughing. "I swear I am not laughing at you. It's just, the situation is so ridiculous."

He thought about it for a second and began to grin. "It is a bit, isn't it?" Suddenly, the humor of the situation hit him and he chuckled low in his throat, the laugh bubbling up and out until it became a full-fledged guttural roar of laughter.

Lea listened to him as tears began to stream down her cheeks. His chuckle sent shivers through her- it was deep and rich and dark. He leaned against her, the outpouring of mirth exhausting them both until they were clutching at their bellies and supporting each other. When they finally finished, they were gasping and wiping at their eyes. Martin pulled the towel away from his nose, finding that the bleeding had stopped.

"Well, what do you know? It seems laughter is the best medicine." He grinned and Lea began to chuckle again.

"No! Stop it you horrible man! My stomach hurts too much to laugh anymore." She raised a hand to his face, turning it toward her and peering at his nose. "And your nose isn't as bad as it looked at first, but you should still put some ice on it. I will get Arthur." Before he could protest, she shot out of the bathroom, calling for the steward.

Martin watched her go, completely flabbergasted. He had gone from embarrassing himself and wallowing in the humiliation to genuinely laughing in less than thirty seconds and he had no idea how except that it was all because of Lea. She seemed to take his bumbles in stride, smiling in friendly solidarity rather than pity and he was becoming just a little bit addicted to the feeling.


End file.
